HABITAT

Not In My Billionaires’ Row!

The hotel that will become a homeless shelter, if the mayor has his way (image via Google Maps).

July 5, 2018

NIMBR is the new NIMBY. That is, Not In My Billionaires’ Row is the new Not In My Back Yard.

Residents of Manhattan’s Billionaires’ Row, where supertall luxury condo towers cluster just south of Central Park, have filed a lawsuit against the city in an attempt to stop a homeless shelter from opening in their pricey neighborhood, the New York Postreports.

The West 58th Street Coalition claimed, in its Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit, that the proposed shelter at the old Park Savoy Hotel is not up to modern safety standards and would pose a danger to both its homeless residents and neighbors. “That is why emergency relief is urgently needed now to prevent this shelter from opening imminently,” according to the complaint.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan earlier this year to create 90 new shelters in all natures of neighborhoods in all five boroughs. In a touch worth of Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, the Park Savoy abuts the posh condo tower One57, the city’s most expensive apartment building.

Neighborhood activists claim the city has ignored fire, crime, construction and asbestos issues. “Not only is the building unsafe, but crime and loitering” caused by the project will lead to “irreparable injuries that have been found to warrant emergency injunctive relief to block the opening of a homeless shelter,” the lawsuit said.

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